Prep football: Totino-Grace 'brothers' help quarterback, coach, manager get through tough times

From left, Totino-Grace senior quarterback AJ LaPanta, assistant football coach Jeff Moritko and student manager Maythem Mehdi pose for a photo with the team behind them after practice in Minneapolis, Minn., on Tuesday, November 20, 2012.
(Pioneer Press: Ben Garvin)

Buried in dirty laundry and football equipment, Maythem Mehdi closed his eyes, his lower lip quivering slightly and a tear falling down his cheek. The Totino-Grace junior was giving thanks, as he does many times daily, for the team he manages, the lifeline that fills his heart with joy despite its shortcomings.

An hour later, assistant football coach Jeff Moritko is on the sideline, marveling at the Eagles as they prepare for Saturday's Class 5A Prep Bowl state championship game against Owatonna. He admires their energy and zest for the life in front of them. He needs that infectious energy, he says, amid a battle with cancer that has stretched on more than a year.

At the conclusion of practice, senior quarterback AJ LaPanta is worn out but manages a smile. It has been a long day saying goodbye to his grandfather, Steve LaPanta, who died Nov. 9, just hours before the Eagles' victory over Apple Valley in the state quarterfinals. Among the estimated 500 people attending the funeral was the entire Eagles football team and coaching staff. LaPanta misses his biggest fan but says he is blessed by the overwhelming support from the team he calls "my brothers."

That brotherhood has been a rock for Mehdi, Moritko and LaPanta, a font of unconditional support during their personal highs and lows.

"I can't be thankful enough to all of these guys for the purpose and direction they give to my life," said Mehdi, 16. "I am so blessed to have this team and this school in my life.

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I just don't know how I'll ever repay them for all they've done for me."

Moritko and LaPanta know the feeling.

"When these people tell you they're praying for you and thinking of you, you believe it. You want to keep battling for them and not let them down," Moritko said.

"I've had an awesome support system," LaPanta said. "I didn't have to go through this pain all by myself."

MEHDI: 'I wish I could play football'

As much as Mehdi wants to play for the Eagles, he never will. After enduring nearly a lifetime of heart problems, he won't play any competitive sports. Ever.

But he has refused to allow it to break the bond he has with his football teammates. Diagnosed with fibromuscular dysplacia, he will have surgery on his aorta early next month, a procedure he put off to be with the team this weekend.

It was a risky move, he acknowledged, but he has the help of his teammates in staving off potential danger. Diagnosed with hypertension at age 5, he has to be careful: He can't get too excited about a touchdown or let frustrations get to him if a referee blows a call. If he does, he runs the risk of a stroke.

"Emotions are high on the sideline," he said. "My teammates keep an eye on me to make sure I stay under control. If I let my blood pressure spike, it could be big trouble."

Mehdi also suffers from chronic fatigue and leg pain, and his right kidney isn't fully functional.

"All this stuff is annoying, and it really gets me down sometimes," he said. "I try to stay positive, but it's hard when one thing after another happens. When I started going to Totino-Grace, the school and the football guys encouraged me to keep my head up. They told me I was one of their brothers. They say hi to me in the hallways, and they include me in on stuff."

By the time Mehdi was 7, he had had two angioplasties. He had another at age 9. When his blood pressure spiked shortly afterward, a trip to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester revealed a narrowing of his right renal artery. Surgery was recommended, and in 2008 he had a bypass on his right renal artery.

Two years later, he began having leg pains, headaches and bloody noses and was diagnosed with a narrowing of his aorta. He had surgery to put a patch over the opening. When symptoms kicked in again last year, Mehdi was forced to miss months of school and much of the football season.

"It was devastating," he said. "I missed a lot of games and practices. I felt helpless. I felt I was letting the team down."

Medication relieved his symptoms, but earlier this year a CT scan revealed another narrowing in his aorta, just above the one repaired in 2010. Surgery was scheduled for this month, but Mehdi pleaded with his family and doctors to allow him to finish the football season.

After his surgery next month, he will miss four weeks of school, cutting into his second job -- manager of the Eagles' boys basketball team.

"I just want to get better, once and for all," he said. "I'm tired of the struggles."

MORITKO: 'The bottom fell out'

Moritko was a gifted athlete growing up in northeast Minneapolis, an all-state lineman at Minneapolis Edison and a scholarship player at the University of Minnesota. In addition to being a longtime Eagles assistant coach and playing a major role in Totino-Grace's recent football dynasty, he is a successful restaurateur with four children.

But all of those positives were clouded by news in May 2011 that he had colon cancer.

"That unknown, that darkness where everything turned slow, just overcame me," said Moritko, 50. "When I got the word after the colonoscopy that (the polyps) were cancerous, there is so much disbelief."

Not really understanding the gravity of his condition, Moritko scheduled college recruiting trips with his son, Andy, an all-state safety, for two days after his surgery. But his doctor told him he wouldn't be going anywhere for seven weeks after surgery to remove nearly 3 feet of his colon.

He had the surgery on June 28. While waiting impatiently for the results, he searched the Internet for information on colon cancer. At one point, Moritko said, he saw a doctor write that his cancer was a possible Stage 4B. He looked it up and discovered he had a 25 to 30 percent chance of survival.

"That was better than zero, so there was hope," he said.

Later, it was clarified that he had Stage 3B and, Moritko said, "My odds jumped to an 85 percent chance of beating it."

Moritko told his children on Father's Day and close friend and Eagles head football coach Jeff Ferguson shortly afterward.

"We both cried,'' Ferguson said. "Football is secondary in times like this. We're friends first. I told him that we would rally around him and to not worry about football. I told him to go get healthy and go get the treatments necessary to beat this thing."

The onslaught of good wishes and prayers that followed nearly knocked Moritko over.

"I've heard all my life people saying, 'Our thoughts and prayers are with you' but that just sometimes rolls off your tongue and you really don't put a whole lot of stock in it," he said. "The cards and well wishes started rolling in, and suddenly, you feel so uplifted. To get three dozen cards and visits from people in the hospital is a pretty amazing feeling.

"That gave me a will to keep battling. It was all a part of a feeling that I was part of something much bigger than just me."

During his chemotherapy, Moritko, the Eagles' defensive coordinator, refused to miss a practice. He sat on a garbage can while he directed the defense, just in case.

"I don't want to tie it so literally to football, but me battling this cancer, it was all about competing," Moritko said. "Growing up in northeast Minneapolis, I learned you just go out and do your job, whatever it might be. I told myself to get back in there, compete and fight."

Moritko, who still battles neuropathy and fatigue, is on the path toward recovery. He said a small lesion was found during a recent checkup, but he's hopeful a CT scan next week will reveal nothing serious.

"I'll keep battling this for however long it takes," he said. "With the support system I have around me, you feel like you aren't walking through this process alone. That's an unbelievable feeling."

LaPANTA: 'I had a chance to say goodbye'

In the days before his death, Steve LaPanta, 67, could not remember his name, his wife's name or his address. Diagnosed with dementia, he did know his oldest grandson was the starting quarterback at Totino-Grace.

AJ was able to hold his grandfather's hand before he passed away in the early afternoon of Nov. 9. It was unclear whether LaPanta would play in Totino-Grace's state quarterfinal game scheduled for less than five hours later.

"There was never a doubt for me; it's what he would have wanted for me," LaPanta said. "I had a chance to say goodbye. It was a powerful moment."

Concerns for LaPanta's emotional state were abated in the Eagles' 42-14 victory over Apple Valley.

"When the game ended, I watched the way some of our guys went out to shake his hand or give him a hug," said Anthony LaPanta, his father and an Eagles assistant coach. "There were guys that weren't his best buddies, but it was their instinct to watch over him and to care for him. It was a moving moment. I was proud of AJ, and I was proud of our guys."

It was an emotional moment when the entire Totino-Grace football team filed in at Steve's funeral Monday at St. Odilia Catholic Church in Shoreview.

"It's been an awesome support system," AJ LaPanta said. "Football has kept me going, and all of my friends and teammates have been right there with me at this tough time."